The founder of one of Israel’s most successful tech unicorns declared on Tuesday that he was leaving the country and ceasing to pay taxes in pro

Unicorn CEO says he’ll leave Israel, stop paying taxes to protest legal overhaul

submited by

Style Pass

2023-02-03 21:30:14

The founder of one of Israel’s most successful tech unicorns declared on Tuesday that he was leaving the country and ceasing to pay taxes in protest over the new hardline government’s planned judicial overhaul.

Verbit CEO Tom Livne, whose hybrid AI-based and human transcription and captioning software company was valued at $2 billion in its last funding round in late 2021, told Channel 12 that he encouraged other prominent tech executives to follow his lead.

“Over the past few years, I’ve paid tens of millions of dollars in taxes and my company has paid hundreds of millions in taxes,” he said.

Explaining the rationale behind his far-reaching decision, Livne said, that when members of the tech sector, “as the engine of the economy, start talking and acting like this, then they’ll come to the table and talk to us as equals.”

“I hope [others] will see me doing this and follow my lead… to stop residing in Israel and to stop paying taxes. This is the solution and one that will hurt [the government] the most,” he added.